Kambiz Sakhai, Ph.D
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In this book the theories of Marx, Weber, and Habermas are critically evaluated and tested against the cultural background of the medieval Iranian and Islamic thought. In this context, Islam, Sufism, and Zoroastrian thought, are compared and contrasted. These three discourses are among the most important contributors to the social and political milieu that has shaped the fate of the people in Middle East, Central Asia, Asia Minor, Indian Peninsula, and many other parts of the world, for centuries. Each discourse is scrutinized in respect to a variety of issues such as the ethical and cognitive rationalization, linguistification of the sacred, theodicy, flight from the world versus domination over it, etc. It is amazing to see how the trends of thought that belong to centuries ago determine the day to day life of the people in this region of the world, today. Even more astonishing is the impact of these apparently abstract arguments on the actual political, social, and personal life of the people.
Kambiz Sakhai has studied Sociology and Social Research at the University of Rome in Italy and Iranian Cultural History at Columbia University in New York. This book is his Ph.D. dissertation at the latter institute’s Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures. The areas in which he has conducted research include: Medieval Islamic and Zoroastrian Thought, Anti-Islamic trends of thought in Sufism, Sociology and Psychoanalysis of Religion, Italian Contemporary Social Theory, Soviet Legal Thought During the twenties. The common theme of his work is the analysis of the revolutionary theory and practice and emancipatory struggles of the poor and powerless people of the world over the centuries.
INTRODUCTION
I. God and the World 14
A. Occidental Theocentrism vs. Oriental Cosmocentrism
B. Zoroastrianism as the Synthesis of the Two Approaches
II. Mysticism and Asceticism
A. Occidental Asceticism vs. Oriental Mysticism
B. Occidental Activism vs. Oriental Passivity
C. Zoroastrian Mystical Activism
III. Rationalization
A. Ethic of Brotherhood and Everyday Life
B. Occidental Religions, Rationalization, and the Non-Western Mythologies
C. Cognitive and Ethical Rationalization
D. Potential for Ethical Rationalization in the West
E. Potential for the Cognitive Rationalization in the West
F. Zoroastrianism, and Ethical and Cognitive Rationalization
IV. Modern World
A. Particularity of the West
B. Disenchantment and the Modern World
C. Modern Rational Ethics and the Orient
D. The Zoroastrian Position
V. Theocentric, Cosmocentric, and Revolutionary Discourses During The Early Islamic Centuries.
A. Resistance of Zoroastrian Worldview
B. Sufism and Fiqh Versus Zoroastrian Thought
C. The Cosmocentric Approach, Sufism
D. The Theocentric Approach,Fiqh and Kal?
m
VI. Assertoric, Expressive, and Performative Uses of Language
A. Fiqh and Language
B. Sufism and Language
C. Zoroastrianism and Language
VII. Differentiation of Moral, Legal, and Technical Rules
A. Nondifferentiation of Moral, Legal, and Technical Rules in Fiqh
B. Nondifferentiation of Moral, Legal, and Technical Rules in Sufism
C. Nondifferentiation of Moral, Legal, and Technical Rules in Zoroastrianism
VIII. The Problem of Theodicy
A. The Solution provided by the Islamic Theology
B. The Sufi Solution
C. The Zoroastrian Solution
IX. Regarding the choice of the texts
A. Sociological Interpretations of the Judeo-Christian Tradition
B. Habermas
C. Max Weber
D. K. D. Irani
X. Appendix
XI. Bibliography
A. Social, Political and Intellectual History of Iran
1. Primary Sources
2. Secondary Sources
B. Classical Persian Literature
1. Primary Sources
2. Secondary Sources
C. Islam and Sufism
1. Primary Sources
2. Secondary Sources
D. Zoroastrianism
E. General Social Theory
F. Weber and Sociology of Religion
G. Habermas
H. Books on Habermas
1. General
2. Theory of Communicative Action
3. Consensus Theory of Truth
4. Ethics/Moral Development
5. Theology & Religion
